Agriculture

Agriculture is the system of cultivating plants, rearing animals and managing natural resources to produce food, fibre, fuel and other essential commodities. It encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture and forestry, forming one of humanity’s oldest and most transformative activities. The development of agriculture enabled the emergence of sedentary societies, surpluses of food, and the rise of civilisation. Although early humans gathered wild grains over 100,000 years ago, systematic cultivation began approximately 11,500 years ago, accompanied by the domestication of key animals such as sheep, goats, pigs and cattle.

Scope and Definitions

The term agriculture derives from Late Middle English, adapted from the Latin words for “field” and “cultivation”. While typically referring to human activities, agriculture in a broader biological sense also appears in nature: species such as attine ants, termites and ambrosia beetles have practised forms of crop cultivation for millions of years.
Defined broadly, agriculture uses natural resources to produce goods that sustain life, including food, fibre, horticultural crops, forest products and associated services. It includes arable farming, horticulture, animal husbandry and forestry, though horticulture and forestry are sometimes considered separately in applied contexts. The field is commonly divided into plant agriculture, concerned with the cultivation of useful plants, and animal agriculture, focused on the production of domesticated animals.
Agriculture shapes rural economies through direct employment in farming and through agribusinesses providing machinery, processing, logistics and related services. Farms vary greatly in scale: smallholdings produce roughly one-third of global food, yet the world’s largest one per cent of farms operate more than 70 per cent of all farmland. Although five out of six farms are smaller than a few hectares, they occupy only a small proportion of global agricultural land.

Origins and Early Development

Agriculture began independently in several regions of the world, with at least eleven recognised centres of plant and animal domestication. Wild grains were collected for millennia before deliberate planting began. In the Levant, evidence of cereal cultivation appears around 23,000 years ago, while systematic sowing and harvesting developed gradually with the rise of sedentary communities such as the Natufian culture.
Domestication occurred across diverse ecological zones:

• In Mesopotamia, sheep were domesticated between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago.
• Cattle descended from wild aurochs in areas corresponding to modern Turkey and Pakistan about 10,500 years ago.
• Wild boar in Europe and Asia were domesticated into pigs around the same period.
• In the Andes, potatoes, beans and camelids such as llamas and alpacas were domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago.
• New Guinea saw the early cultivation of root crops and sugarcane around 9,000 years ago.
• Sorghum emerged as a major domesticated crop in the Sahel by about 7,000 years ago.
• Cotton was independently domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago and separately in Eurasia.
• In Mesoamerica, teosinte was selectively bred into maize between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago.

Rice cultivation began in China between 11,500 and 6,200 BC, with the earliest well-documented farming sites dating to around 5,700 BC. Beans such as soybean and mung bean followed. Further domestication of species such as the horse in the Eurasian steppes around 3,500 BC transformed mobility and agricultural labour.
Studies of early farming societies reveal a pattern of increasing intensification and sedentism. Communities first harvested wild stands of useful plants before replanting and eventually domesticating them. Similar transitions occurred in early Chinese Neolithic cultures and across Europe during the spread of early farming populations.

Early Civilisations and Agricultural Expansion

The growth of ancient civilisations was closely tied to advances in agricultural practices. The Sumerians established irrigated farming systems along the Tigris and Euphrates from about 8,000 BC, later developing ploughs and seed-ploughs. They cultivated wheat, barley, lentils, onions, dates, grapes and figs.
In Egypt, dependence on the Nile’s predictable flooding cycles shaped agricultural rhythms. From around 10,000 BC, Egyptians cultivated grains such as wheat and barley and produced industrial crops including flax and papyrus. Granaries, irrigation systems and crop rotation became characteristic features of the civilisation’s agrarian base.
In the Indus Valley, early agriculture included the domestication of wheat, barley and jujube by 9,000 BC. Sheep and goats followed soon after, and by the fourth millennium BC cotton cultivation and animal-drawn ploughs were well established.
China developed sophisticated systems of agricultural management. By the fifth century BC, granary networks and sericulture were widespread. Water-powered grain mills were used by the first century BC, and advanced iron ploughs with mouldboards appeared by the late second century BC, later spreading westward across Eurasia. Asian rice, domesticated tens of thousands of years ago on the Pearl River, became a staple across East and Southeast Asia.
In the Mediterranean world, ancient Greek and Roman agriculture centred on wheat, barley, peas, beans and olives. Sheep and goats were primarily raised for dairy products. These civilisations employed sickles for harvesting, stone granaries for storage and iron tools for ploughing and land preparation.
In the Americas, Mesoamerican civilisations domesticated maize, squash and beans, while cacao became a culturally significant crop. Farming scenes from ancient tombs, such as those in Egypt, depict ploughing, harvesting and tree cutting, reflecting the long-standing centrality of agriculture to daily life and ritual.

Agricultural Production and Global Outputs

Agricultural production today includes four major categories: food, fibres, fuels and raw materials such as natural rubber. Important food classes include cereals, vegetables, fruits, cooking oils, meat, milk, eggs and edible fungi. Annual global outputs amount to roughly 11 billion tonnes of food, 32 million tonnes of natural fibres and around 4 billion cubic metres of wood. Despite this vast production, an estimated 14 per cent of food is lost between harvest and the retail stage.

Technological Change and Industrial Agriculture

The twentieth century saw the rise of industrial agriculture, characterised by large-scale monocultures, mechanisation, synthetic fertilisers and agrochemicals. Modern agronomy and plant breeding significantly increased yields, while selective breeding and improved animal husbandry boosted livestock production. These changes enabled global population growth but also introduced new environmental challenges.
Mechanisation and agrochemical use have heightened concerns about soil degradation, agricultural pollution and deforestation. Animal husbandry practices have prompted debates on welfare and antibiotic resistance. Agricultural emissions contribute to climate change, while agriculture itself is vulnerable to environmental stressors such as biodiversity loss, extreme weather events and desertification.
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are widely employed in modern agriculture to improve disease resistance, herbicide tolerance and nutritional content. Their regulation varies across countries and reflects ongoing discussions about food safety, environmental impact and ethical implications.

Environmental Interactions

Agriculture is both a major driver of environmental change and highly sensitive to ecological conditions. Large-scale land conversion, monoculture and intensive water use can reduce biodiversity, accelerate soil erosion and deplete aquifers. Conversely, environmental degradation can lower crop yields and destabilise food systems.
Sustainable agricultural approaches seek to balance productivity and ecological resilience. These include agroforestry, conservation tillage, crop rotation, organic farming and integrated pest management. New technologies such as precision agriculture and remote sensing support more efficient resource use and monitoring of environmental conditions.